7 weeks, 5 days - Dr. Appt Scheduled

Well, I finally got my new insurance card and made an appointment with the doctor (Wed, 1/4 at 8:30). The girl on the phone was much nicer than the ones I've dealt with previously, and she explained "their process" to me (which nobody has done for me thus far). She said that they have you come in first for a blood test and you can choose your doctor for that appointment. After that, you rotate through the doctors in the practice. I'm sure that will be fine. I loved both doctors I saw last time. They have a new doctor in their practice, though, now. Someone I haven't seen before. I assume she'll be lovely because both of the other doctors were, but I'm still a little unsure about it. Anyway, that's the one I'm seeing on Wednesday. The one whose name I don't know. It doesn't really matter, though. I mean, last time, they just took my blood, weight, and blood pressure then a doctor came and talked to me for a few minutes. Easy peasy. I'm not sure about scheduling the sonogram, though. I can't remember if they would have let me schedule it at that appointment or not. Just want to get through that first sonogram.

I'm actually feeling a little better about things these days. Still super nervous, but I feel like I'm better prepared to handle bad news, if that's what should come. Last time, I was so incredibly unprepared for something to go wrong; this time, I understand what the possibilities are. Still hoping and praying for the best, but I'm not crying so much anymore. :)

Also, I nearly threw up this morning. That's good, right? I think that's good.

7 weeks, 4 days - Blah

So, I have full fledged morning sickness these days. As Amy, Megan and my Peace Corps friend, Caro, mentioned during their pregnancies, it subsides mostly if I make sure my stomach isn't empty. It's pretty amazing how that works. I've been keeping crackers next to my bed to eat when I wake up in the morning and am making a concerted effort to snack throughout the day, but it's tough because I'm never hungry. Blah. Just so queasy.

I'm also thinking that it might be nerves, though. Last week, Matt and I were out shopping and I started spotting for no reason. Now, I understand that to be a normal thing in early pregnancy, however at 7 weeks? Doesn't seem like it could be implantation bleeding that late, does it? I was very nervous, so I came home and checked the internet, which as we all know, is always a good idea when you're nervous about something. Ugh. Of course I came across stories of women who spotted in week 7, called the doctor who told them it was nothing to worry about, then ended up having a baby with no heartbeat when they went in for their sonograms a week or two later. :( I'm going to call the doctor early next week. Hopefully, they'll schedule me quickly for a sonogram and I can stop worrying so much.

In the mean time, I'm trying to celebrate my morning sickness because it's supposed to be such a good sign. No vomiting, but a constant queasiness. The websites say vomiting is really the most positive sign, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. :(

6 weeks, 2 days - Moody? What's it to you?!

Ugh, so when Amy was pregnant, she really liked this fantastic site called Baby Center. I went on and found a lot of things I liked, so I decided to create an account and follow that site as opposed to the millions of others out there. They have a checklist for things you should do each week/month/trimester. One of the things I "should do" at this point is join a birth group on their website. So I did. Oh. My gosh. It is the source of all annoyances in my life right now. Stevie frequently says that she doesn't like people and man, I can totally see why. They're just... idiots. They say the stupidest things. I've stopped reading them, but man, I just can't get over how stupid these message boards are. I guess they're supposed to be supportive or something but mostly they're just whining. Get. Over it.

So, maybe I'm grumpy. At least I'm not crying. :)

In other news, I have morning sickness. It started pretty much they day we hit week 6. Weird. Hopefully mine will stick to the morning because it seems to go away as soon as I get something on my stomach. I'm keeping crackers next to my bed, so maybe I'll eat one in the middle of the night when I wake up to go to the bathroom or something. Anyway, it's a gross feeling but so far, easily manageable. We'll see if I change my tune in weeks to come.

6 weeks, 0 days - Belly Photo

Not starting out quite as flat as I'd like, but it's nice to have documented a starting point so maybe I can see the progression once it begins.

5 weeks, 6 days - Mushrooms

Since I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I've been taking a variety of vitamins to make up for the absorption problems that I experience. I've been taking a calcium/magnesium/zinc supplement, a regular multi (which is now a prenatal + fish oil for DHA) vitamin, an iron supplement, and a B Complex. I ran out of my B complex the other day and, since the prenatal vitamin I'm taking has a lot of B12 in it, I didn't go get more. And now, all I want in the world is mushrooms. Mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms. I've always liked them more than your average bear, but lately, I can't get enough of them. I've been eating an 8oz package almost every night with dinner and then craving them throughout the day. Right now, all I can think about in my entire life is cream of mushroom soup. It's making me crazy. I'm not even hungry and I can't stop thinking about it.

So I looked up mushroom cravings and vitamin deficiencies on the internet. Sure enough, mushrooms are a natural source of what? Vitamin B. So, until I have the money to invest in a mushroom farm or my body learns how to properly absorb the B vitamins in my multi vitamin, it looks like I should continue to take that B complex, eh? Man, I think it's so crazy weird and neat that our bodies can do that, that they can just tell us what they want. I haven't been tested for Vitamin B deficiencies or anything, but I find it a little too coincidental that I started NEEDING mushrooms right at the same time I stopped taking my B complex.

5 weeks, 5 days - Wacky, Crazy Emotions

So... I woke up last night because I was having a panic attack. In my sleep?! Yeah. I woke up soaked in sweat and my heart was racing and I couldn't calm down. I couldn't breathe. I thought I was going to die. I'd had kind of a wild ride during the day with wacky emotional spikes, but I thought I'd done a good job of smoothing it over. I took a long walk and had a nice date with Jeremy. Apparently, it did not do what I'd hoped. Anyway, after laying in bed awake for about an hour, I wasn't calming down at all, so I decided to meditate for 15 minutes. I have no idea how long I actually did it for, but it was absolutely flabbergasting to me how quickly and effectively it calmed me down. I focused on my heart rate and I could feel it normalizing. It was really bizarre. And I fell back asleep with no trouble at all after that.

5 weeks, 4 days - Weird Dreams

So, I had a really weird dream last night about being a school bus driver. Nothing scary like careening off a cliff or anything, but I was really worried about driving the kids around because I'd never driven a bus before. Fortunately, everything went fine and the kids got home safely. Though, I wasn't sure where to park the bus after I dropped them off and I couldn't remember where I'd picked it up in the first place. I have a feeling my subconscious is recognizing just how nervous I am. :)

5 weeks, 3 days - New Blog

Well, I'm pregnant. I'm starting this blog so that friends and family who live far away can follow along with the baby's progress. I feel a little bit sheepish and self-absorbed about doing it, but I would want to be able to follow along with my sister's pregnancy, so there you have it.

I'm super nervous. I'm just over 5 weeks along. It was at our 8 week early sonogram last time that we found out it was a blighted ovum and that we were going to have a miscarriage. I know that all the statistics say it's highly unlikely to happen again, but I'm just so nervous and worried about it. Ugh. Going through it once was bad enough; what would I do if I had to go through it again?

So far, I have no symptoms, other than an early bout with crazy emotions. I mean, I'm always tired but I haven't noticed that I'm more tired than usual or anything. The books say that most symptoms don't show up until around 7-8 weeks, though, so I'm not celebrating the lack of nausea just yet.

Also haven't scheduled the first doctor's appointment yet. Last time, they did a blood test to confirm the pregnancy prior to setting me up for the first prenatal exam. I'm not thrilled about that as it just seems like a more expensive way to do things. I'll be 8 weeks right around the new year, so I'll schedule an appointment around that time. That way, my new Health Savings Account will be available to me and my new health insurance will kick in. That should just make everything cheaper, so I don't see a benefit of making an appointment before then. Especially if all they're going to do is draw some blood.

I'm going to try to start taking belly photos as soon as possible. Obviously, I wont' be showing for quite a while yet (well, at least hopefully I won't), but I feel like it'll be nice to be able to watch the progression. Again, I'd like to be able to see it if Stevie was pregnant, so I'm doing that with loved ones in mind. Otherwise, I'm trying to eat healthy and not think about it. It's hard, though. It seems like I think about it all the time and time progresses sooo slowly. How is it possible that it's only 5 weeks? Weird. Christmas seems bound and determined to show up unannounced while the baby ticker seems to be moving backward, if anything. So weird.